Just one Sunday arvo

A gig like this just floors me and reminds me of the best of jazz, the chops, the intensity and invention, the commitment, the unpretentiousness of it all.  Some pretention might be deserved, given the quality of playing, but I've seldom seen it in jazz.  Despite the immense harmonic and rhythmic knowledge and huge but ever-developing playing skills.  But jazz musicians are always learning, even the greats, so humility is common.  So it was with Waveteller, despite a breathtaking gig.  This was just a Sunday arvo gig at Smiths, to too few audience, but I for one just chuckled with the devastating playing and interplay and interesting, tangled compositions.  This is music written by bassist Michael, played with Casey and Ed.  They did 11 tunes in two sets, all originals, some from their first CD and others coming out soonish on another.  It had me counting (as in 6-6-6-4 or 6-6-6-6/6-6-6-6-2// or 10/8 as 4-4-1+2).  Then the harmonic movements, some lovely bass solos and devastating, razor-sharp polyrhythmics throughout (ah, that's Ed on drums!) and playful and sustained lines of long and longer intervals on piano.  Not sure what more to say, really.  Checkout Waveteller on Spotify or Bandcamp, but I doubt they will be the same on record.  I find live is just something beyond.  And this was: a devastating furnace that had me chuckling at the audaciousness of it all.  Fabulous.

Waveteller are Michael Mear (bass), Casey Golden (piano) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) and the played one Sunday afternoon at Smiths.

Images and formulas

Hannah James's back in town - it's been a while. There was a last minute hitch and a change of band, but nothing lost (the original band, Energetic Zen Quartet, will be at Smiths in Feb). This was still Hannah with Casey Golden, but in a drummerless trio with Eamon Dilworth. They've all played together in various incarnations over the years and here they've coalesced into this unusual format. They are all such impressive players, all competent, all setting and holding rhythms independently, so drums are a luxury but not necessary. The tunes were written by Hannah, with just two from Eamon, and they were substantial pieces: lengthy, intricate with varied parts, telling stories that were sometimes very obviously closely felt and listened. Slip, Number one, Last letter and Portrait; Snowfall, Three different kinds of light. These were all from Hannah, pensive, careful tunes, sometimes obviously deeply felt, observant. Three different kinds described the thoughts of a poet, and clearly spelt out, as music can spell out light. They were all deliciously developed by Eamon on trumpet or flugelhorn or Hannah herself with a few solos or very inventively by Casey on a real upright piano, even if the tuning was problematic. And Eamon's two tunes. Hannah invited Eamon to introduce them and we got a decent intro to Havelock Gardens (modelled after the Fibonacci sequence and music theorist Greg Sheehan who he'd spoken with in Singapore, presumably the location of the gardens). We didn't get an answer on his other tune (what did The hiding signify? Hiding as in hide and seek, or, hiding as in spanking) so Hannah had to play that tune uninformed. These tunes were a little more driven, especially Havelock Gardens with an odd melody, I think spelling 1,1,2,3,5,8. At least the solos were in a more usual time (in 6/8 if I remember correctly). The concert was all open and clear and nicely spelt out with deliciously capable playing. A lesson in jazz richness for some musos arriving for the next set. Wonderful. And we have another opportunity with Hannah and Casey back in late Feb with their Energetic Zen band, this time with drums.

James Golden Dilworth was Hannah James (bass), Casey Golden (piano) and Eamon Dilworth (trumpet, flugelhorn) and they played at Smiths.

Quest

Casey, Bill and Ed, and especially Bill and Ed, are old friends of CJ so written up often enough. Even so, this was their first performance in this group at the Gods, although they had all played there in other formations over time. Surprising given they've played together for five years. It's no surprise that I admire them for the Casey's superb phrasing moving cleverly around the chordal structure and Bills superbly accurate playing that can explode but is kept in lyrical control most of the time and Ed's quiet and intense percussive movements that play with colours of instruments and lead a mobile take on the underlying pulse throughout any tune. This is intense and skilled but disciplined. All that we've seen developing over the years but displayed even more strongly after these years together and this post-tertiary training time. They played several originals, I think from Casey's pen, and a few standards and jazz tunes. We know the standards so understand better how they improvise their take on them. I should care is a cyclic standard from the movies and the Great American Songbook so their take on this is demonstrative: inventive, playful, sequenced phrases and mobile time feels and a sweet, driving but relaxed walk. Giant steps was more elusive; Fee fi fo fum evident but divergent. The originals were complex in time and often in changes, again mobile in feel and intensely interacted. All the tunes were that: they play like they've played together for time and they have. Perhaps the showpiece was a 25min number that they'd just recorded for release sometime soonish: long form; 3 parts; a certain chordal regularity. Bill laid down his best solo of the night - awe inspiring - and Ed finished with one; Casey was ongoing with his malleable phrasing. Amusingly Casey himself said later in the night he only wishes to hear so much music like this, intellectual and complex and challenging as it is, but this just tells the value and loftiness of this music. Stunningly rich and intellectually satisfying. The quest continues.

Casey Golden (piano) led a trio with Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) at the Gods.

No doubt

It's exciting to watch a musician develop, through training and subsequent experience. I've watched Hannah James but it's some time since I've heard her play. She has family here in Canberra, but she hasn't played too often in recent years, at least not at gigs I could get to. In fact, it's 2 CDs since I've heard her play live, especially with her HJ Trio. It was a wonderfully mature performance. Jamie Cameron was drumming for this gig with just 2 practices under his belt and he did a nicely capable and committed job. The compositions were mostly Hannah's, just one from Casey and another cover from No Doubt / Gwen Stafani (that's something I didn't know: a common favourite for Hannah and me) and one favourite standard. The writing was pensive at times, often so on intros; there were some twisty melodies and Hannah, on bass, didn't excuse herself the unison line; there were stories to tell. Annie's revenge spoke of Blackbeard's pirate ship called the Queen Anne with a oddly delayed 5/4 groove. For Geoff was a dedication and commission for Geoff Page that could be swung or syncopated. They mostly swung it here. Number one had a Dave Holland Conference of the birds chordal feel. Richie Beirach's Elm was the standard but it was no obvious cycling Cole-Porter-esque piece. The other one didn't make it to either of the CDs but I liked the Corea-cum-Stanley Clarke feels. Effigy made it to both CDs in significantly different interpretations. Casey is a masterful pianist who I always enjoy. Listen to the recent HJT CD recorded for SIMA and be converted. Jamie was playing after just two rehearsals but was convincing. Obviously checking the charts and concentrating, but unleashing some highly delayed and unexpected solo syncopations on two snares. And Hannah was playing her best: intriguing, exploratory thumb position solos, steady accompaniment, mobile accompanying grooves with open and responsive sycopations. I love this style, less centred and precarious than swing but open and exploratory. It's what jazzers do now, now that swing is the stuff of, at most, tune for the night. It's exhilarating. Hannah and her trio are doing it with searching honesty and gentle panache.

Hannah James (Bass) led a trio with Casey Golden (piano) and Jamie Cameron (drums) at the Gods.

Distillations

Casey, Bill and Ed - the Casey Golden trio - are friends of CJ and I've heard them and written of them here several times, but I was still surprised when the music started. This was so quiet. Bill's tone was so close to acoustic. It's what they try to do, but it's uncanny. He had an amp. You almost wouldn't know it but you know he must have one otherwise you wouldn't hear him when he plays quite so gently. Bill can ring a string but often it's just a touch that forms a note, placed just right, sparse, unadorned, nothing excess as this is. Ed is doing something similar, always responding to Casey, always active but it's big tension under tight control. It's accompaniment and colour and interpretation more than obvious beat; the beat is there but implied. I feel Casey is the core, but that's nothing unexpected in a piano trio. He's playing richly embroidered lines or dense, complex harmonies. I follow a melody line and it's long and contorted before it repeats. I listen to the most colourful of harmonies and wish for a piano to do this justice. The tunes were all originals from one or another CD, especially their new one, Outliers, that's had good reviews around the world. And from another, Live at Bennett's Lane, recorded for Mal Stanley and ABC. The covers are all stark in complex black and white drawings; the music is similarly precise and resolute. They played a swinger at Geoff Page's request: Herbie Hancock's Dolphin dance, that wonderfully musical modern theme. I felt it was an entree to their thinking and playing. Again, the precision and listening and gentility; the melody appearing often but not interminably; the swing swung, but interspersed with spaces and implications; still the quiet engagement with each other and the music. It's easy to receive originals in their own context, but to hear a reworking like this on a known piece was a revelation. All strength to Casey, Bill and Ed. Profoundly satisfying stuff played with outstanding skill.

The Casey Golden Trio are Casey Golden (piano), Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums). They played at Smiths.

Casey Bill'Ed

Bill and Ed were so frequently written up here in recent years, while they were top students at the ANU Jazz School, that I wonder what more to write. Casey is not local, but I’ve also heard him several times, mostly with Bill and Ed. Ed is still the immensely committed and responsive drummer with close control and restrained volume. Bill was quiet too (a bit too quiet for my ears) but he stepped up when his frequent solos came around, and spelt out careful melodic snippets leavened with quicker runs, all with firm expression. Casey would frequently enter with solo intros, leading into complex arrangements, odd times, unison taps and the like with his colleagues, purposeful sequences and impressionistic colour. He told Geoff Page and me that he’d studied the grades of classical music and was pleased when Geoff identified the French impressionists as an influence, Debussy and the like. There’s tons of colour here and also spaciousness, and the trio works a treat with a cerebral music that entices with beauty and immense delicacy and close listening. Bill and Ed can stare at each other and at Casey at times and smiles often ensue. Casey often bends over the keyboard, but he’s smiles at the end of a tune too. Here’s a band that plays music of utter seriousness and the achievement shows, proud but never conceited. This is art as it’s made in modern Australia: unpretentious but skilled, informed and deeply serious.

Casey Golden (piano) led his trio with Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) at Smiths

Nu

Lines of flight play music that I can’t bring my wife to. I joked about that with Keith. This is Nu Jazz. I use words for it like uncompromising, unyielding. Some would find it hard to love. I don’t find that at all, but it’s not relaxed and certainly not smooth. I have the idea that it’s not very tuneful or lyrical, but there was some lovely tuneful trumpet overlaid as head or solo. It started with unexpected cool which threw me off, and this ‘50s cool returned a few times in the night.
But mostly this was insistent, unrelenting syncopations on bass and often unison on piano, continuing under heads and solos; sometimes four to the floor bass; often with 4 bar chord changes. Mostly this presents as harsh, but there were also a few times of gentleness and mythical, floating passages. But then a bass solo that tore the edges of acceptability with initial spaciousness and subsequent mania. Or a piano solo that plays with the repetition, repeating sequences mirroring the predictability of it all. Minimalism needs change as contrast, and that was there too in arrangements, although there was at least one tune that held its syncopations throughout. I felt an overarching consistency in style, a concept that’s come from time together. Joe told me he wrote all the music but I think the band has played together for several years. They are about to record, so that’s good. The obtuse titles fit the style, too: Axis, Planes of intensities, Incription, Tow, Pull the other. And they played Restless, that lovely and quite complex song by Australian Crawl. They said it was their first cover. Nice. Frantic, or metal or conversational or unexpected cool, this was a fascinating outing and not for the casual jazz listener.

Lines of Flight was led by Joe Cummins (trumpet) with Casey Golden (piano), Sam Pettigrew (bass) and Alex Slater (drums)

As the alembic

I was recording, and with the first notes I worried that I’d set the gain control too high. This is a band, after all, with drums. You expect some volume. But the Casey Golden trio was playing at a level that I virtually strained to hear. The drummer was Ed and I know his so-subtle stick play, restrained in volume with an uncommonly intimate contact with the skins. And bassist Bill was there, too, clear but understated, each note precise and with intent and absolutely without superfluity. These days, his playing is sparse, although occasionally visited with little fills of teeming lines or repeated notes or dropping into fast passages and walks when required. And Casey himself, bent over the piano, delicately laying out sequences or melodies or standing as foil to a written bass line of simple clarity. The members moved the focus around the band but virtually without signal, sometimes a short bass solo, or piano featuring but unobtrusively, or a mild ostinato and one of Ed’s blisteringly developed solos. Given the restrained presence, I got to wondering about the PA: one wedge as a monitor for Ed and one feeding the audience and balancing the piano on the left of the stage. Chris Deacon was recording; was it ArtSound’s? It turned out to be Ed’s, with mics for bass and piano, presumably placed to ensure everyone, on and off stage, heard the subtlest details. The result was so slight that you hardly noticed, but it’s an indicator of the detail and distillation of this music. Distilled is the adjective I kept thinking: pure, clean, perfected, tight as, shorn of surplus and the low volume level was indicative. These were highly developed skills, playing detail with precision and control, notes when required and only then, everything considered and limited to the necessary. They played Dolphin Dance and a bop head for an intro, but otherwise this was original music by Casey. The progressions were often quite simple. I’ll enjoy listening back to the recording to better understand the melodies and broader structures, like the unison lines and starts and stops of the arrangements. But the effect was pure: delicately formed and subtle jazz. How good is this? Casey Golden (piano) performed with Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) for too small an audience at Canberra Grammar Gallery.

The second of two colours

Just a short report on Casey Golden and his trio who I caught for one set just after Amarcord. I reported just a few weeks back on Dave Rodriquez performing with this trio: Casey and Bill Williams and Ed Rodrigues. This night, I heard Bill and Ed as eminently similar in style to when they were performing with Dave: powerful in restraint, emotional, communicative, virtuosic. But to my ears, Casey sounded different here. He performed a few standards – Nardis and Fee Fi Fo Fum and another – and two originals in the set I heard. This was a trio that moved the feel and interpretation constantly, always listening, wick lit but unexploded. Not loud but intense. I heard Casey as more modern here, rather than contemporary and soundscapey as he was with Dave. This was right hand lines and left hand chords, moving dissonances and some sharp, unexpected rhythmic jolts in melody. Bill was all ears, heavily syncopating, openly resting and occasionally swinging. Ed was forever in rhythmic counterpoint with ever changing tones and patterns and snares released and recovered and the thinnest of cymbals and rivets in his bass drum. I’ve watched these guys and they continue to startle. It’s no surprise that they perform at Sydney’s 505. They deserve it. This is wonderfully fluent expression and restlessly motile. Casey Golden (piano) led a trio with Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) at the Loft.

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart

Baghdad, maybe Paris

I heard Dave Rodriguez’s quartet as American music with an air of desperation: open plains, dry mesas, straight roads. Think of the film Baghdad Café, or perhaps Paris Texas, ie, road movies.The music was open, sparse. I heard drum’n’bass grooves, all sorts of guitars: screaming rock or jazz and reams of effects - echo and synth and loops and swells and wah and more, sampled voices. Someone commented how broad is the jazz palette these days. These are not standards and I’m not sure I heard any swing, but this music is informed by mainstream jazz skills. I remember Bill saying once how great a training ground were the standards, but this was even eights and solid ostinato bass. Ed was replete with his detailed, wonderfully dynamic and bodily-involved drumming, touching with all the grooves and melodies. Both Bill and Ed played some hugely expressive solos, tempered and lyrical but also with releases into furious cadenzas or longer passages. Ed was telling me after of the complexity of the drum rudiments that can be inverted and otherwise contorted to make hundreds of different patterns. You could hear this technical fluency in both these players: there’s intense application here. Casey was not so much right hand solos and left hand chords as rippling harmonies and minimalist change. He played solos that were integral to the music rather than flying over it but they still built energy and excitement. The tunes had titles like Open snow expanse in Middle-Eastern Europe or Sick new one. Fantasdick raised a chuckle when introduced and featured some hip-hop beats which I thought was apt. I saw the charts later, and they were also sparse. Bars of whole and half notes with moving chords and occasional dots, some eighth notes, and one long passage of sixteenth notes played unison. Brian suggested subtlety and finesse as descriptors. Keith mentioned Charlie Haden and the reference seemed right to me with his concern with song and melody and this floating unhurried feel. This was music that moves far from the jazz mainstream and will talk to many audiences. I enjoyed it immensely and I wasn’t alone.

Dave Rodriguez (guitar) led a quartet with Casey Golden (piano), Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) at the Canberra Grammar School Gallery. I lost my photos so the promotional banner will have to do.

Take them anywhere

Ed was wearing a t-shirt from Smalls Jazz Club NYC last night when he led his Edband at the Loft. It was a return for some recent masters graduates from the Jazz School, Bill and Ed, with a few mates they are playing with in Sydney, Casey Golden and George Nickolopolous. We got standards and some tunes from some current NYC heavies, but this was not just any standards gig. This was incredibly hot: both difficult and less difficult tunes, played with energy, precision and power and just a bliss to my ears. You could take them anywhere: no way would they be out of place at Smalls.

Ed was hugely energetic, but he’s also matured since leaving Canberra. He was always precise, always dynamic, always responsive to the guys he’s playing with, but this is taken to another level. This is professional, sharp as, hugely dynamic, precise rolls that end to snaps, whole body and face responding to the music, that frequently twirled stick just evidence. Bill was quieter this day, but always precise: lovely intonation, very quick when he chooses to be although he mostly plays thinkers’ solos. Reliably rhythmic in support and with a wonderful tone from top-end clarity without scratchiness or honk. Casey plays piano and that’s a favourite of mine especially on a decent acoustic grand piano. He played some lovely, clear, fast bebop lines but also atonal patterns, and he played with time, variously with anticipation and delays and a frequent disregard of the barlines. There was a nice sense of variation and development in his solos, building, moving, changing harmonically and melodically inventive. Guitarist George was a different animal. He sat easily, often not playing, behind other solos and played melody with disarming simplicity and restraint, but his solos were urgent, fast from the top, berretta-rapid lines. His earlier solos were of a more obvious harmony, but they developed through sequences that moved high over the tunes’ structure and he surprised me later with some touches that were harmonically and rhythmically free. The sound was fat and deep with electric thud and an edge of echo and the effect was hot and sweaty.

So I liked the band. And the tunes. Dolphin dance started the night with the most delightful sparseness that was touched with occasional walking swing. It’s you or noone was a hard hitting workout. Isfahan was a ballad with understated guitar melody over colours from piano and brushes. Then My favourite things reminiscing of Coltrane and a pop song, Mad world, which was nice and chordally simple (Bill got a rest). The second set was more adventurous. Chick Corea’s fabulous Matrix was wonderfully tight and alive with its contorted logic. With its urgent and bent head, I‘d forgotten that it’s just a blues. Then two tunes by Ari Hoenig: The Painter and an arrangement in changing times of Coltrane’s Moments notice, mostly in 7/8 but also 5/4. These were difficult tunes, and the playing was hot and so tight. Then Albermarle by NYC saxist Will Vincent. It’s 6/8 with defined rhythmic arpeggiated bass and Bill was reading and obviously concentrating here. Then to finish, what else but All the things you are, but in cycling time signatures: 7/8, 5/4, maybe 4/4, maybe others.

This was one to lie back and take in as the storm passes over you: energy and precision in equal and generous parts. Bill and Ed blew in from Sydney to play for old mates and it was a blowout. Welcome in the best clubs. Ed Rodrigues (drums) led his quartet, EdBand, with Bill Williams (bass), Casey Golden (piano) and George Nickolopolous (guitar).